Another Red Head?!?

Another high energy red headed crew member signs on aboard Avatar. Is there room for two red heads on one boat??

June 11, 2018

We received our brand new Beta generator from England. We had ordered it back in December!! There had been some mix up in the shipping where it got delayed and then again of course in customs in Tahiti. But it finally arrived!!

We all admired her lovely red color.

Nothing like sparkly new boat jewelry!

Hopefully she will be fairly easy to install. But on this day we all decided that the 3.5 meter swell (10 foot) coming over the reef would make it a bit difficult to get out safely to the boat. So we stored it at our friendly local chandlery overnight.

She makes 4kw which will be plenty enough for our needs. Plus this is the size that fits in our space!!

The next day the swell was down enough to get the job done. So the boys took it to the dock on the fork lift.

It had not wanted to stay by itself on the pallet, so Alex rode with it to make sure it did not jump off.

Adrian and Alex hook up a hoist line and then the forklift picked it up.

We dropped it over the edge of the pier into our dingy.

Phil and Mike were in the dingy, but someone distracted them. Yo pay attention here!

Slowly the forklift let her down on to the waiting boards.

Phil's job was to hold her in place while we head out to Avatar in the anchorage.

We set up a chain hoist off the boom to lift it out of the dingy.

Up she comes closer to the boom.

We are all holding our breath until we can get her aboard.

Come on baby, we got ya!

We swing her on board by pulling in on the boom to get her into the cockpit.

Only problem was we had the hoist set too far aft on the boom to get past the bimini. We debated whether to take down the bimini, but shade in the tropics is essential. Adrian came up with another idea, so Alex, being the youngest of us all, just stood their holding her in place until we could get organized.

Adrian used a block and tackle to pull the whole thing forward.

We added a towel to protect the bimini and I pulled the boom in and she slipped by.

Ok so we made it to the cockpit, shew! Now just to fit her down the hole!

Adrian inspects her electrical components.

Mike had cleaned up the whole space where the old one had been and added insulation to all the walls and overhead to help with sound deadening. The old generator was in a sound shield box, but this one would not fit in the space with the box, so we had to order it with out. So just decided to insulate the entire engine room.

Adrian was able to tip it up and weasel it into the hold by maneuvering it with that same block and tackle.

She fits! Yea! Adrian gets her set up with the engine mounts and all of her electrical, water, fuel and exhaust connections.

You can see in this photo how it just barely fits past our steering cables!

And Big Red is fully installed and ready to start making electricity and running our water maker again! Happiness is two red heads on a boat!